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TBH has slowed down...

The girls are not drawing as much comb as they did earlier. There is roughly a little over 1/2 of the TBH with comb and almost all have brood in the lower portions of the comb and a honey band near the top. Will they continue to add and fill the whole hive body or is this about it and they just like the extra space? There are 17-18 bars drawn at this time. I noticed yesterday that they have added more honey to the last bar the away from the entrance. Will they build past that bar or do I need to add empty bars in front of it to keep them working?

Re: TBH has slowed down...

I don't care about a harvest at this point since this is a TBH from a package. I am worried about winter stores even though it is early. We will be through the flow in about 4 weeks as May is the strongest here. I hope that they will continue past the last bar that is there, but that was the purpose of my question. Will they add more or decrease the brood and back fill at this point?

Re: TBH has slowed down...

mine had a little spell where they concentrated more on getting their feet under them about half way thru the summer ( this was from a package started last year), then they got another flow and took off again. this may be what you are experiencing.
i did not harvest any from the tbh as i was unsure what they would need to over winter. peeked in first warm day this spring and they not only had plenty of honey from last summer, it looked like they could have made it thru this summer as well
ah well, at least i know i can harvest this summer for sure

Re: TBH has slowed down...

I took notice the other day that my top bar hive has done the same thing! I installed a swarm of feral bees in my TBH May 8th and from the very first day they was drawing comb like crazy. I couldnt believe the comb they was drawing, they put my 2 package bee hives to shame...hahaha But here in the last few days it has died down and there is still approx 1/3 of the 4 foot long hive left to fill in! I was wondering if they would fill that area in thats still empty or do they just like that extra space........I would like to know the answer myself, just curious!!!

Re: TBH has slowed down...

I have a TTBH from a package installed 4/5. I am already needing to put a new TB in the brood area to keep them from getting honey bound. The queen won't cross a honey comb to lay so you need to keep open areas in the brood area or they'll kind of shut down.

Re: TBH has slowed down...

it could be that they have reached a broodnest size that suits their needs, then they would build up to harvest honey for the rest of the space. Keep an eye on them if you are unsure you can feed them mid fall before the temperatures start to drop to the point that feeding is impossible.

Re: TBH has slowed down...

Well i checked through the observation window today and i believe they are eatting the honey that they stored at the end..I just took the temperary feeder out of the inside the TBH 3 days ago and put a new one down at the brood end.."custom Built"...i dont think that this has anything to do with it but if i have to put the feeder back inside i guess i will but i dont want to do that cause they get the comb built up around the jar. It was just temp until i had the perm one built! Or maybe the couple i seen with their heads stuck in the comb was working do you think??? The others are building comb 2 bars down going towards the brood section. Also I always heard not to add any bars to the brood area and let the bees build as they go on!....Do bees move honey from the last 2 bars and add it to a bar that you put in front of them 2???? There was an empty bar that they skipped so i replaced it with one that had a small foundation strip and they went to town on it but im wondering what they are doing with the last 2 bars of comb in front that bar????

Re: TBH has slowed down...

Re: TBH has slowed down...

I was in the TBH yesterday and found an emerged queen cell tucked neatly into the very top center of one of my bars. Chewed open and leathery looking, I feel that there was a queen emergence. The bee numbers seem to have declined, but I'm not sure if it is due to swarming, or just a decrease in the laying of the original queen. She is still there marked as she has always been. I suppose that a virgin queen can swarm as well, but I thought that was not too common. There are eggs in most of the bars of comb, and my wife and I looked pretty hard for a virgin queen but never found one. Does this sound like a swarm to you guys? If so, do I need to add bars in between other bars to give them a larger brood and honey area? Started this post, there have been no additional bars of comb added to this tbh.